BA DRAMA AND CREATIVE WRITING

This unique degree unites UEA’s strengths in creative writing and in drama to give you an exhilarating immersion in writing and performance. You will have the opportunity to study all kinds of creative writing, with a particular focus on writing for theatre, cinema, television and radio. Alongside, you'll be exploring the practice, criticism and history of dramatic writing and performance. Your writing will be enriched by an awareness of theatrical and literary traditions from around the globe. 

You’ll take practical drama modules and you’ll have full access to our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio. This firm grounding in acting, directing, and all other aspects of stagecraft will enable you to graduate as a writer with an instinctive feel for the world of theatre and performing arts. 

About

You'll gain a thorough grounding in writing for stage and screen, which will be complemented by opportunities to develop your skills in non-dramatic writing, too. Your stage and screen writing will be improved by mastering the ins-and-outs of theatrical performance, while you become better able to analyse dramatic language by writing it yourself.  

At the heart of your degree are scriptwriting masterclasses, where you’ll discover the formats, conventions and techniques of writing for different dramatic genres and media. You’ll learn by writing scenes and short scripts, offering critiques of each other’s work, and by working closely with other Drama students. In your second and third years, you'll be able to develop your craft as a writer by taking workshops in prose or poetry, working closely with our world-famous creative writing colleagues.   

Throughout your degree you will gain hands-on experience by participating in production and practical project work. You’ll have the keys to our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio, giving you the chance to control everything in your own productions. You’ll also have access to performance and placement opportunities, including a creative industries internship in your second year, which involves a work placement in a drama-producing organisation or environment. 

You’ll encounter an astonishing array of drama and a wealth of performance styles, from naturalism to non-Western traditions. You’ll engage with major theoretical and directorial approaches, from Aristotle to Artaud, from Stanislavsky to physical theatre. And you can examine the use of theatre and performance – by the state, by political activists and by theatre and performance practitioners – to solidify or challenge structures of power. 

You’ll also benefit from our highly regarded student run Minotaur Theatre Company, which gives you the chance to gain additional performance, technical and scriptwriting experience. 

Placement Year and Study Abroad

You have the option to apply to study abroad for one semester of your second year. Studying abroad is a wonderfully enriching life experience – you will develop confidence and adaptability, and will have the chance to deepen your understanding of drama, scriptwriting and performance while learning about another culture. At UEA, you will also be surrounded throughout your degree by the many students we welcome from around the world to study with us.

For further details, visit our Study Abroad section of our website.

After the Course

Some graduates go into careers in film, drama, radio and scriptwriting. Recent graduates from our drama degrees include the actor Matt Smith (famous for his portrayal of Doctor Who and his leading role in The Crown), the presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Greg James, and the playwright Tom Morton-Smith (whose 2015 play Oppenheimer was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company). For others, this degree is a stepping-stone towards careers in the arts, media, publishing, politics, charities and NGOs, teaching and the commercial sector.

Our Careers Service is here to support you in launching your career by advising with CV writing, internships, and much more. Every year we run an event, Working with Words, which gives current students the chance to meet and hear from successful UEA alumni from across the creative industries.

UEA also has its own in-house student publishing project, Egg Box, along with many other exciting initiatives that give you opportunities to turn your love of writing and performance into a foundation for your future career.

Career destinations

Examples of careers you could enter include:

• Scriptwriting

• Theatre and film

• Journalism

• Media

• Teaching

• Publishing